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SpaceX has pushed its new reusable rocket prototype to record
heights, just a few short weeks after the vehicle's maiden
flight.

A spectacular
new SpaceX video shows the company's Falcon 9 Reusable rocket
(Falcon 9R for short) soaring to 3,300 feet (1,000 meters), about
four times as high as the rocket went during its first flight
test last month.

The stunning footage, which was released on Friday (May 2), was
captured by a flying drone, providing a bird's-eye view of the
action. The video shows the
Falcon 9R taking off from SpaceX's rocket-development
facility in McGregor, Texas, scaring some nearby cows and then
touching down as planned back at the pad about two minutes after
launch.

During the May 1 test flight, the Falcon 9R took off with its
landing legs extended. In future tests of the rocket, the legs
will lie against the side of the rocket initially, then deploy in
time for landing, SpaceX representatives have said.

SpaceX is developing
reusable rockets in an attempt to dramatically reduce the
costs of launching satellites and people into space. Fully and
rapidly reusable launch vehicles could make spaceflight 100 times
cheaper, company founder and CEO Elon Musk has said.

Such rockets could therefore help make a Mars colony much more
feasible — a big priority for Musk, who has said that he started
SpaceX primarily to make humanity a multiplanet species.

The F9R is very close in design to the Falcon 9 rocket that
SpaceX already uses to launch its unmanned Dragon cargo
spacecraft to the International Space Station. The Falcon 9's
first stage is fuelled by oxygen and kerosene and has nine Merlin
rocket engines.

SpaceX has been ramping up its reusable-rocket tests lately.
During the latest Dragon resupply launch, which took place on
April 18, the company succeeded in bringing the Falcon 9's first
stage back to Earth for a soft ocean splashdown, a world first.
SpaceX also completed tests of its Grasshopper reusable-rocket
program last year after a number of successful flights, each of
which got progressively higher and more complicated.